Monthly Archives: September 2009

I pulled them up mercilessly, yanking by their stalks and ripping their grasping roots from the soil.

Now their little corpses lie curing on my kitchen window shelf.

And that’s how you harvest onions.

Actually, I didn’t really do it quite right: their stalks hadn’t fallen over yet, and some of them never really bulbed properly, but I figure they’re as good as they’re going to get given the lateness of the season and the fact that I planted them as seedlings in early June instead of as sets in mid May.

I’ll try again next year. But these ones look nice in the sunlight in my window, n’est-ce pas?

Today was a good day, or a sad one depending on which side of the human/feline divide ones occupies in our household.

It was good for me because I had a list of things to do, and I did them all. Now, there were only three things on this list (besides the usual “eat lunch”, “have nap”, but I don’t need a list to remember those), but the second was one of those things that really should have been done about two and a half years ago, and which facilitates another to-do that could have been done nearly three years ago. So it was very satisfying to get done.

The first thing on the list was just work, but the third was something that I’ve been putting off for weeks, and has been REALLY needing doing. It’s just kind of a chore for me, but it’s a whole bundle of no fun for Pyewhacket, who emerges from it looking like this:

Being a cat who is that magical combination of rather fat, extremely furry, and disinclined towards upkeep of personal hygiene, she ends up very matted and grungy after a while (especially if we don’t brush and bathe her regularly, which we don’t, at least not nearly enough to keep up with all the fluff). So the clippers come out, and while she doesn’t enjoy it at all, with enough treats and firm holding she more or less becomes resigned to the process. But not so resigned that she doesn’t periodically try to escape, resist holding still, and in general make it very difficult to do an even job of it.

So the poor thing ends up with a terribly unbalanced ruff:

Fortunately she doesn’t get out much (at all, actually) so the risk of social stigma is low, but still. Can’t be good for the fragile kitty ego.

This weekend I’m painting the ceiling (that’s the thing that could have been done almost three years ago). Now there’s a tragedy…

So, I’m semi-determined to learn how to knit continental. That’s where you hold the yarn in your left hand instead of right, and “pick” to form stitches instead of “throwing.” It’s significantly faster, involving less finger movement, possibly easier on the hands as well and apparently (i.e. according to something I read once somewhere on the internet) only fell out of favour in North America around the time of WWII because knitting British style was somehow more patriotic. True? False? Who knows.

Of course, re-teaching my fingers how to hold and move yarn after 30-ish years of doing it one way is taking some work so for now it’s actually slower. So why bother? Well, aside from being faster, it’s very useful to know both methods when doing colour work, as you can hold one colour in each hand, and I’ve been getting a serious urge to knit the Fiddlehead Mittens that so many are having fun with on Ravelry.

So my practice WIP is this fun little top-down raglan shrug I’m making for myself (I know it doesn’t look like a shrug yet – be patient, you’ll see in the end). It’s a pretty basic pattern (well, formula really, more than pattern), helpfully busting up a few loitering single balls in my stash, and should be a nice comfy cosy thing in the winter since it avoids the whole ever-expanding-belly area.

Also I made these fun little cuffs to practice the one-colour-in-each-hand thing. They’re a little silly, but good for keeping my wrists warm while knitting (helps keep them from getting sore). The OH did make a Xena reference when he first saw them, but I’m choosing to just ignore that… (I wanted to show them one on each wrist rather than stacked, but try taking that picture without growing a third arm, or setting up annoying equipment, both unappealing options this afternoon.)

Remember how I got those awesome fabric swatches to make into a little quilt? Well they’ve been quartered, and I found a sheet that, while not exactly matching, I figure makes a good accent/trim/reverse for it anyways and today I present to you the layout (forgive the bad photo; I promise to take good pictures when it’s done):

Though looking at it now I believe I’ll need to rotate the squares with the light blue background and squiggly green + black flourishes and white florally things. You know the one I mean. I didn’t notice close up but the directional elements are definitely misaligned to the other squares.

So the plan is light green 1.5″ strips between all the squares, 2″ edging, solid back (the sheet is folded in half in the photo, for those of you who think I’ve skipped an area calculation groove). I still have to find a blanket to fill it with. I think for the quilting I’m going to go with the old fashioned little knots of yarn at intersections or corners or square centres or some combination thereof. Given my lack of a long-arm machine, and my unwillingness to do serious quilting by hand, this seems like the most achievable option. Of course who knows what I might not do when February cabin fever/nesting madness hits…

Speaking of neglected things, I found these remnants from someone’s magnetic poetry set (the Elizabethan version, I’m thinking) on my brisk constitutional walk this morning (displayed in the order in which I found them):

So I’m thinking, this just seems a little too relevant. Just a tad convenient.
I mean, if not for “bag”, it would just be a couple of my favourite words, with “pedant” thrown in for good measure.
But really, what could this be but a personal message from the deities of something-or-other to a bag-maker?

(Although it’s more likely for the OH than for me, as he’s been slaving over the hot Juki to get the new backpacks ready in time to be taken to Japan by their happy new tester/owners. They’re very nice, but the words “pernicious” and “irksome” are definitely appropriate.)

Just what the message is supposed to be, I don’t know. Perhaps simply an acknowledgement, a shout-out to all the hard work. A big ol’ “YO” from the universe.

Anyway, it’s on the fridge now, where it’ll soon become unseen just like all the other things that are seen too often.